FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1943. THE GRASS FIRE MENACE

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume 65, Issue 99, 17 December 1943, Page 3

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1943. THE GRASS FIRE MENACE

With the approach of the holiday season, which brings its • quota of picnickers and campers in riverbeds and other resorts, the danger of grass fires on the plains will become doubly acute, especially if the present dry spell is unrelieved by any rain during the next week or ten days. There is little need to impress district residents with the need to take the utmost precautions; most of them realise, some' from experience bought expensively, what is at stake and how a fire, carelessly controlled, can get out of hand and cause mucli loss of property, even if it does not endanger life. But there remain the thoughtless and the unthinking, upon whom the dangers to which plains farmers are exposed cannot be impressed too often. With a greater quantity of grass and other growth than usual dried off on roadsides, a lighted match carelessly thrown from a passing vehicle might easily cause a fire which could do a great deal of damage before being put out and might require much expenditure of human effort to do so. In any year, crops growing in the areas where the fire danger is the greatest are of considerable value, apart from the homesteads, plantations and other improvements, but this year, when there is need for every ton of wheat, barley and oats which can be produced, these crops represent a much enhanced value and it will be a real national service effort to see that they are protected from fire. Where much more than the usual effort is required for the sowing and cultivation of the crops, as in the present circumstances, it will be a serious national loss should any of them be destroyed by a fire which could have been avoided had ordinary commonsense precautions been taken. Riverbeds and waste places are danger spots to be carefully guarded, and picnickers or other people who will go there during the holidays will be wise to be most careful in how they dispose of their matches, and to see that their picnic fires are completely extinguished. The. issues at stake are so great, but the time and energy required to take the necessary precautions are so trivial, that the carelessness which allows ,a fire to get out of control and to cause damage should be severely dealt with by the law. The county councils in this area, especially Springs and Ellesmere, are doing what they can by means of ploughing fire breaks and having the roadsides cleared of gorse and broom, to reduce the menace to their ratepayers, but in i this work the latter could give a much greater degree of support and co-operation. Protection from fire is a matter in which the property owners can help themselves to ,a great extent, especially by clearing up their road frontages, keeping their hve fences well cut back, drains cleared of long grass and weeds, and any areas of rubbish on their farms where a fire might gain a hold treated in a similar manner It will be argued that this is a counsel of perfection and impossible und er present conditions of-labour shortage. This is admittedly a very serious difficulty, but at the same time if the average farmer was more self-reliant and less inclined to rely on the efforts ;of others or those provided by the community through the local bodies, he would be able to secure improved "protection against fire for his own property. Better still, organised cooperative community effort applied before the danger becomes acute, will lessen the menace during the dry weather. These remarks apply not only to residents in the. county, but to those within the town districts Where precautions ,and cleaning up of unused areas of ground are also urgently needed.

In 41 years U.S. Bureau of Reclamation projects have produced crops valued, at 31,000,000,000 dollars-^ times the total investment of the Federal Government in these projects.